Tuesday, 27 July 2010

On July 24th and 25th, 2010, Reese ran in her first CKC Hunt Tests. The tests were hosted bythe Brandon Retriever Club in Brandon Manitoba. We travelled with our training partner Lianne who is running her Golden, TeeJay in Senior and Aimee, a pup of her breeding in Junior.The Brandon grounds are fantastic and the Brandon people very friendly and supportive.

The morning of the test it was warm and wet as a thunder storm moved through the night before and left a few puddles . The judges set up some very nice marks that were fairly simple compared to some Reese had seen in training. She came through land and water with only a few delivery glitches and qualified in her 1st Junior Hunt Test.

On Sunday our land marks were thrown around a snow goose spread. The Junior dogs had some fairly wide marks that had them run the perimeter of the spread. All though it seemed daunting to the handlers who had not seen them before, the marks were well outside of the spread and did not cause many problems with the dogs ability to find them. Water marks were a different story, both were very similar in that they both landed on land, but had the dog enter the water, go over a finger of land, re-enter the water and then find the bird on land. The water entry from the line had a row of duck decoys about 5 feet in front of the line, all facing the dog and handler. Reese cracking the decoy's defensive line.

The decoys caused problems for half the dogs as they tried to skirt the decoys and enter further down the bank, this of course put them off the marks or caused them to shore run.Two dogs completely shore ran to the mark. One other shore ran on the way back. Of the remaining 3, two of the dogs Reese and Trip entered right at the line and were not phased by the decoys. Both these dogs had the benifit of training at Decoy Days set up by two of the or club members Red Wilkinson and Wayne Nessett. So a big thank you to both of them for setting up decoy day and providing such a great training opportunity, Reese came away with her 2nd pass in this Junior Hunt Test.

Saturday, 10 July 2010

A couple of weeks a go I was heading out to do some field work with Reese, I was only going to be gone about 3 or 4 hours, so Ardi was to stay home. She threw a complete fit, barged out the door and ran down the easement. This shocked me,as she is not a door crasher.

I brought her back in and finished loading the vehicle. The last trip was to pick up my sunglasses and water bottle, which I left on the step by the door. Both were gone. I looked around the corner to find Ardi standing over my glasses with the water bottle in her mouth. my heart melted and I asked if "she wanted to come"? She started slapping the floor and spinning circles. I had to rearrange the whole vehicle to fit her crate in, but come along she did. She even jumped into her crate on her own, which she has not done in over a year.

When I got to the retriever grounds, everyone was waiting, I opened the door to Ardi's crate and said "Hey everyone,look who's here" She ran around rooed and spun. Most of my training group had not seen her in a very long time. It seemed as if everyone got caught up in her excitement to be there, we all forgot about the young dogs in the crates waiting to be trained. I realized why I love this old dog so much, she makes me stop and enjoy life and remember it is meant to be lived and loved.

CBRS4ME list

Chesapeake Quotes of the Day

1st Law of a Chesapeake Bay Retriever."When in doubt, eat it. You can always throw it up later if you didn't like it."
Unknown
How to tell the difference between a Chesapeake and Lab?"If they look at you like you owe them money, it's a Chesapeake."Unknown

"Nugget" Whiskey Creeks Precious Mettle WC, JH, DD , RN

"Kate" Lady Kate CD, FM, CGC

April 1996 to March 5,2006 Now playing at the bridge

"Kitt" Del Brave Katepwa

April 11/06 to July 14/07 ---- Now at the bridge retrieving all that falls.

The Once Again Prince

We who choose to surround ourselves with lives even more temporary than our own live within a fragile circle, easily and often breached. Unable to accept its awful gaps, we still would live no other way. We cherish memory as the only certain immortality, never fully understanding the necessary plan...."The Once Again Prince," Separate Lifetimes, by Irving Townsend

"Roxy" Black Diamond Rox FDCh-S

1995- December 13, 2009. ------------ In house Chesapeake Bay Retriever trainer. Her work here is done.

Justice

Never, never be afraid to do what's right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way." — Martin Luther King Jr.